December 10, 2011

Sugarpill is a brand I've been wanting to try forever, so when the site was having a Black Friday sale, I couldn't pass it up! Since I'm on a budget, only two shadows ended up in my order: Buttercupcake, which is described as "the brightest bright matte yellow with awesome opaque coverage"; and Starling, which is described as "vibrant metallic turquoise with intense sheen."

Buttercupcake is one of Sugarpill's nine pressed eyeshadows, and truthfully I had been lusting after it for quite some time. Thankfully, I am not disappointed in any way! First of all, the packaging is awesome. It feels really sturdy and looks high-quality. Personally, I think the packaging is on-par with the quality of higher-end brands.

As for the shadow itself, it applied really smoothly, and the pigment in it is pretty intense. The swatch you see below (as with all of my swatches, unless stated otherwise) is without any sort of base.

Buttercupcake- natural light

Buttercupcake- indoor lighting

Starling is one of the eighteen (and growing!) Chromalust loose eyeshadows. The packaging was smaller than what I had expected since I'm used to the KvD pigment containers. However, there is a full .5g of product in the container so it's just wider than it is tall. There isn't a sifter inside the container, which is a tiny bummer for me because I'm very accident-prone and always end up knocking everything everywhere. I guess I'm just going to have to glue this down somewhere!

The color of this shadow is gorgeous-- a metallic medium blue with a teal sparkle. I had ordered Starling for two reasons: 1. the color combo on the eyes of the girl in the Sugarpill illustration was awesome 2. I thought I didn't have anything quite like this in my collection and when I ordered it, I wasn't at home to check. Unfortunately I was wrong. It's pretty much a dupe for KvD's Bukowski shadow from the Angeles palette (or vice versa-- I think Starling came out first). The differences are that Starling has a sparkly, more metallic finish and has much better pigmentation.

Starling- taken in sunlight L: swatched dry R: swatched wet

Starling- taken in indoor lighting L: Swatched dry R: Swatched wet)

In my order, I recieved a sample of a loose shadow, Goldilux, which was awesome because I had been on the fence about buying it!

Goldilux is a metallic gold with gold glitter. The pigmentation is amazing, and the glitter actually stuck to my arm when I swatched it! If you've read any of my reviews of KvD eyeshadows that involve glitter, you can imagine how impressed I was with this! I was on the fence about buying this because I felt I had enough gold shadows. Um, apparently not:

Goldilux, taken with indoor lighting

Swatching is believing!

I've seen a few Sugarpill reviews saying that it's "expensive" which now boggles my mind. Given the overall high quality of the products, I'd say $12 a pop (both the pressed and loose shadows are this price) is pretty amazing. Honestly, I wouldn't bat an eye if these were $18-$20 a pop because the quality is just that spectacular. This definitely will not be my last purchase from the brand!

You don't have to take my word for it. Check Sugarpill out for yourself at Sugarpillsop.com

December 8, 2011

Hello! Here's another holiday look that's NOT a gold eye with a red lip! This was inspired by the blue and silver that's associated with Hanukkah at this time of the year. I used a coral blush and lip for a bit of a contrast, but this will look great with pink and berry tones.

Before I put the color on, I applied my face makeup and put primer on my eyes.

Eyes
Step 1: Apply a blue shadow to your lid,

and halfway across your lower lash line.

Step 2: Apply a medium silver shadow to the crease, blending it slightly into the blue.

Step 3: Apply a gunmetal shadow to deepen the outer corner of your eye. I also applied it about half way across my upper lash line.

Step 4 & 5: Add highlights to the inner corner and brow bone, blending the surrounding shadows together. Then I filled in my brows a bit. I just dyed them yesterday, so I didn't go as crazy as I normally do.

Step 6 + 7: Line your upper and lower waterlines with black eyeliner-- I also traced the pencil 3/4 of the way across my top lash line and diffused it a little bit. Then I put on a thickening mascara. Feel free to put on false lashes for an ULTRAGLAM look!

Lips: Just swipe on a coral lipstick and add gloss to the center of your lips. Super easy!

December 6, 2011

(Since the winter holidays are nearing, holiday makeup tutorials have been popping up everywhere. Almost every one I've seen has involved a shiny or sparkly gold eye/red lip combination! While gold and red does make a lovely combination, it's not the only one out that reads "Holiday."

Note: before I started, I applied my foundation and concealer. Normally I use Urban Decay's Primer Potion before I put on my eye shadow, but today I used Cover FX cream foundation to experiment. More on that later.

Step two: Apply dark green eye shadow at lash line and in outer corner, and blending it out a bit.

Step three and four: Apply mid toned green adjacent to the dark green and in the crease, then blend blend blend! If you find that you want to make the look a little darker, you can add more of the dark green eye shadow. Then take a highlighting shade (I used a white/green duochrome, but you can use the pale silver color from Step one), and apply to the inner corner/tear duct area and on the brow bone, blending it into the green shadows.

The rest: From here you can easily turn this into a smokey eye with either a black or dark green pencil liner. My personal look of choice today was winged eyeliner. After my eyeliner, I applied a thickening mascara, then a lengthening mascara.

Lips: I put on lipgloss first, and then my lipstick. I find this makes the color of the lipstick sheerer, and it doesn't mess up my lipgloss applicator!

So there you have it! A silver-green eye with a pale pink lip.Now that I think about it, this is reading a bit mod, and it's making me want to put my hair in a beehive! Anyway, this is one of those looks that can definitely be tailor-made to suit your style. (want something more subtle? How about a wash of silver over your eye paired with some green eyeliner? Stronger? How about keeping a smudgey black around the eye,k and then using greens to blend it out?)

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For press inquiries, general questions, or if you're in NYC and would like me to paint your pretty face, please get in touch at landofladythings@gmail.com